A Long Time Ago, We Used To Be Friends
by roofietoof
Summary: But they aren't anymore, they can't be. Epilogue added!
1. Chapter 1

"So Costanza seems to think that he can fly the Blackbird." Kara laughed as she sat with Lee drinking coffee at a table in the crowded mess. "I told him that when he could maneuver a maintenance cart without running into things, we would talk."

"Yeah." Lee replied curtly, looking at the papers spread out before him on the table.

Kara gave him the once-over and breathed deep. "Oh, I saw Cally just now and she said that Viper 219 is gonna be down for another three days, so I'll adjust the flight rotation."

"Thanks." Lee said inattentively, taking a sip.

"Reynolds was late for mid-watch again. I told him that you would be speaking to him about it later." She ran her fingertip over the rim of her cup. "But I told him not to worry……..you wouldn't be too hard on him because you were too concerned about finding clothes that fit over the stick up your ass."

"Uh-huh." He wrote something across the top of one of the pages.

Kara's leg began to shake in irritation underneath the table. "I was thinking of going to _Cloud Nine_ for a couple of weeks, since nothing important is going on around here. I mean Cylons and terrorists and human-toaster hybrid babies can wait while I get a little R&R, can't they?"

"Sure." He furiously shook his pen, attempting to get more ink out.

"While I was there, I was thinking of inviting the President over for a little girl-on-girl action." Her voice rose, testing him. "The last time we tried it she was too tired from her romp with Mrs. Tigh to do me justice."

"Great." He said tossing the pen on the table in frustration.

She sighed loudly and rubbed her eyes. "Okay. You weren't even listening to me."

"I was listening."

"Oh yeah? Tell me all the things that I just said." She reached for her cup.

"Constanza/Blackbird, Cally/Viper 219, Reynolds/stick up my ass, Cloud Nine/couple weeks……….not gonna happen by the way, and Roslin/girl-on-girl." Lee took a breath to recover and his eyes iced over. "The last three were jokes," He paused, his lips staying thin and hard. "I'm laughing on the inside."

Kara let out a stuttered exhale at his cold response. "So……… when you were responding to me with indifferent, one-word answers just then, it wasn't because you were engrossed in your work? It was just because you were giving me the cold shoulder."

"What do you want me to say, Lt?" He crossed his arms and stared at her.

She shrugged at him. "I was thinking something along the lines of 'Sorry I'm such an incredible prick' would be in order."

"Why did we have to come here?" He gestured around the room with his chin.

Her face grew puzzled. "Because we had some things to talk about. I thought a more casual place would loosen you up and you actually _would_ talk to me for the first time in days." She paused as she took a sip. "I guess I was mistaken."

"We talk." He told her firmly.

"No, we _don't _talk. I tell you things and you respond. You ask me questions and I respond."

"You changed the meaning of the word Starbuck? Because if you haven't; everything that you just described meets the definition." He sneered.

She leaned forward in her chair. "What exactly is your problem?"

"We couldn't have done this in my office? I have things to do."

"We've been in here for five minutes!" She said loudly.

"These days, five minutes where someone doesn't want to be is a lot to ask of a person!" He replied at the same volume.

She bit her lip and as he saw the action, his heart froze for a millisecond. "I'm sorry that I demanded such a hardship of you, _Sir."_ She spoke in slightly above a whisper.

He stood up from his chair. "Try to be more considerate of people's time in the future," He grabbed his cup without looking at her. "And their feelings."

He walked away from the table, leaving her alone to feel the questioning and accusatory stares of all the others in the room pointed at her. "_I _should be more considerate of people's feelings?" She muttered to herself and fought the urge to cry and/or scream as she sat in the middle of the mess hall.

* * *

"Hey, Helo, could you come here a minute?" She called to him when she saw him at the end of the hall. 

"Sure." He jogged up to her. "Whadya need?"

"Um, have you……" She scratched her nose and looked around before lowering her voice. "Have you noticed anything different about Apollo? Him being upset or irritated lately?"

"No. Not really. I just saw him on deck; he was smiling and joking with Cally and Tyrol."

"So it's just _me_ that he seems to hate at the moment." She confirmed, almost to herself.

"What did you _do_?" He teased with a smile.

"Nothing! I haven't been sarcastic or insubordinate or grating lately." She watched as his look changed to amused disbelief. "Or I haven't been any more than usual."

"Well, maybe I'm not the best person to ask. He's not exactly Mr. Congeniality, and even on the occasions that he is, he _certainly_ isn't to _me._"

"Yeah." She nodded. "Maybe he's just having a hard time."

"Something going on?" He asked concerned.

"Not professionally……at least not that I know of. Besides our usual little annoyances, it's actually been pretty quiet lately."

"Then maybe it's a personal thing." Helo shrugged. "You saw the Old Man this morning. Did he say anything to you about it?"

"No." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, she saw him staring at her with a puzzled look. "Uh, thanks, Karl. I'll figure it out eventually."

He gave her a little wave and walked away. As she walked in the other direction, she thought about what Helo had said. '_A personal thing.'_ Lately, besides her, there was only one other person that would know about anything in Lee's personal life.

She found herself heading to CIC.

* * *

She stood outside CIC until she saw the young woman that she was waiting for exit. "Hi, Dee." Kara said, stopping Dualla in her tracks. 

"Hey, Starbuck." Dee responded hesitantly before continuing on her way. As she noticed Kara fall into step beside her, she continued. "Did you need something?"

Kara stopped and Dee halted as well. They stood facing each other in the middle of the hallway. "Um, no. It's just that we haven't spoken lately."

"Well, we should correct that. Spend some time with each other." Dee said unconvincingly.

"Yeah, let's get together and paint each other's toenails." Kara said sarcastically and Dee genuinely laughed. "Actually, I was wondering if you knew of anything that was going on with Apollo."

"Why would I know anything about Captain Adama?" Dee looked to the floor.

"Don't do that Dee." Kara sighed. "I know that there's something going on between you two."

"Except, there _isn't_." Dee confirmed looking back up at Kara before sighing too. "Or at least there isn't anymore."

"So you guys broke up." It was more of a statement than a question.

Dee chuckled lowly. "There wasn't really anything to break up. It wasn't……….well, I don't really know what it was or wasn't, but it certainly wasn't anything that anyone else needs to worry about, or even take notice of."

"So neither one of you was upset about it ending?"

"No, not really. All it did was prove to me how much I still loved Billy, and all it did was prove to him how much he…….." She cocked her head to the side as she looked at Kara in wonder before deciding to switch gears. "How much he didn't want _me_."

"So you're not the cause of his bad mood?"

"No." She said kindly even as she was examining Kara from head to toe. "I don't think that _I _am."

Kara jerked at the emphasis of the '_I' _in her statement. "So you think _I_ am? Did he say anything to you about me?"

"Not _about _you." Dee answered cryptically as Kara rubbed her eyes in exasperation.

"Ya know?" Kara snapped. "All these little half-truths and underhanded jabs are really starting to get annoying. Could you just give me a straight answer?"

Dee's face softened. "I wasn't trying to jab at you, or be underhanded. But the answers you want aren't mine to give." She smiled gently. "Talk to Lee. _Really_ talk to him. Stop giving each other the patented Apollo/Starbuck quips and really say what you want to say. If you do that, you'll find out all you need to know."

* * *

Kara walked to the flight deck, kicking herself that she was actually enough of a masochist to _want _to talk to Lee after their last encounter. She entered the deck and found Lee underneath a Viper as Cally, Tyrol and Jammer stood around looking at the diagnostic computer. 

"He didn't!" Cally giggled down to Lee as he continued telling a story.

"Yep." Lee answered back amusedly as he worked on the machinery above him. "Little did he know when he was a twenty-five year old pilot committing such atrocities that someday he'd be the commander of the last battlestar and his grown son would be telling all his little underlings about his misdeeds."

Kara stood beside the plane. "Lee?" She could only see his feet and legs as she looked down at him, but she noticed that they tensed at her presence.

"Did you need something, Lt. Thrace?" Even the three deckhands blanched at the sudden hardness in his voice.

That was the last damn straw. "Yeah." She hissed. "Get out from under the frakking plane."

Tyrol coughed meaningfully and Cally's eyes got wide as Lee pulled himself from underneath the ship and stood before her, wiping off his hands with a rag. "You like spending time in the brig, Thrace?" He threw it on the tool cart. "Keep it up, that's where you'll be."

"Well, I doubt that you'd come visit me there, so the brig sounds great to me."

"Well, I can't afford to lose you from the rotation." He turned away from her to examine the wing of the plane. "So as usual, you get away with murder." He froze as he realized what he had just said. He turned around to amend his statement. "Kara, I didn't mean—."

The fist connected with his face before he knew what was coming. He fell hard to the deck floor.

"I came here to _talk_ to you." She sneered as she stood above him. "But I think it's safe to assume the _talking_ is gonna cease for a while, _Captain._" She said the last word with such animosity that the bile rose up in her throat.

She walked off and he raised himself up off the floor, looking after her and wiping the blood off his lip until Cally handed the rag back to him with a sympathetic but accusing look.

* * *

"I've never……had sex in a public place." Gaeta said. 

"Gaeta!" Racetrack laughed. "That's tragic. Meet me on deck at 23:30 tomorrow and we can correct that." She winked. Cat calls were yelled as everyone at the table but Gaeta drank. "Okay. I'm next. I've never……….had sex with a superior officer. And if you'd seen my last C.O., you'd realize exactly what a hardship that was." She fanned herself as Helo, Starbuck, and Hotdog drank.

Helo laughed at Hotdog. "Surprise, surprise, Costanza. Who _isn't_ your superior officer?"

"Hey!" Hotdog yelled, insulted.

"I've never…………finished up a frak even after Action Stations were called." Kat raised her eyebrows at Helo.

"How did you even hear about that? That was before the attack." Helo responded.

"Was that the visiting morale officer?" Gaeta asked. "_Everybody_ heard about that."

"Well, I couldn't exactly go out like I was. Besides, it wasn't a true A.S. call, it was only a drill." Helo laughed as he took a shot. "She sure was good at her job, my morale was definitely boosted." Helo looked over as Kara took a drink too, but his attention was quickly called back to Cally.

"Okay, okay." Cally laughed. "I've never……. had sex with anything that required batteries."

Kat, Racetrack and Starbuck all drank.

Hotdog laughed as Helo refrained. "What, Agathon? Valerii runs on _solar _power?"

Helo froze before breaking into a smile and jabbed a finger at Hotdog. "It's a good thing I'm drunk, Costanza."

"Actually, it's a good thing _Starbuck's_ drunk." Hotdog laughed as he looked at Kara's head resting on the table. "_Her_ I'm afraid of. _You_ I can handle."

Helo watched as Starbuck poured herself another. Then he heard someone clear their throat. "My turn?" Helo asked and then looked right at Gaeta. "I've never…….frakked Lt. Weathers."

Everyone hollered as Gaeta drank but then got silent as they saw Starbuck bring the glass to her lips.

"Oh, man." Hotdog chuckled as Starbuck poured the liquor down her throat. He gave her a slightly aroused once-over. "If that's true, it's gonna be the stuff of my fantasies for months."

Helo leaned forward in his chair. "Hang on a second, I want to try something." He looked at Kara as she set up another round. "I've never……..had sex with 5 guys in the middle of a packed pyramid stadium during a Virgon hail storm."

Sure enough, Kara downed another.

"Okay. Starbuck? You've never even _been_ to Virgon." Helo confirmed, taking the bottle away.

Starbuck reached for it as Helo held it from her grasp. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You're only supposed to drink when it's something that you've done." He told her. "Those are the rules of the game."

"We were playing a game?" She asked with a slurred voice.

"Yeah." Helo answered, his concern audible. "You're telling me you just drank all those shots because you _wanted_ to get shit-faced drunk?"

"Shit-faced drunk/Accidentally-tumble-out-an-airlock-because-you-can't-tell-where-you're-going-and-therefore-do-everybody-a-favor drunk. Either one will work." She laughed.

Everyone else took on a confused, subtly sad expression before they heard someone walk through the hatch.

"Lt. Thrace? I need to have a word with you." Lee said coming to stand behind her.

"Captain?" Helo looked at Apollo. "I don't think that now would be a good time."

Lee ignored him as he spoke to Kara again. "Lt. Thrace? We need to have a conversation, NOW." He grew visibly furious as Kara did not respond.

"Um, Starbuck?" Kat said nervously. "The Captain said—."

"I _heard _him." Kara hissed with her back to Lee before continuing. "So what are the rules?" She drummed her fingers on the table. "I say something I _haven't_ done, and then if you _have_, you drink?" She breathed deep. "Okay. I've never………had sex in the last two years without feeling like a filthy, betraying whore."

Helo leaned forward on the table and ran his hands over his face; Gaeta looked to his chest, everyone else at the table gulped loudly. Lee just stood there in shock and fought the urge to take her in his arms.

"Nobody's drinking." She laughed in a sing-song voice. "Bet you're sorry I actually started playing."

"Okay." Helo whispered, pulling her chair back and taking her arm. "You're done for the night."

Lee stepped in between them. "Let me." He said quietly, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"Right," Helo said sarcastically. "You'll forgive me if that doesn't sound like the best idea right now."

Lee got right up in Helo's face to where the other man feared he would be punched, but instead his expression softened. "I'm the cause of this. I need to fix it."

Helo's eyes glinted for a second and then he nodded.

Lee stood Kara up and then draped her arm around his shoulder. The others watched them leave the room and didn't say a single word.

Outside in the hallway, Lee started walking her in the direction of the shower room, but she realized that it was him leading her and shrugged out of his grasp. "I'm not going anywhere with you." She rasped out.

"Alright." He said defiantly as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Are you actually gonna try to find your own way? Or will you just sleep it off on these crates here in the hallway?"

"Smug son of a bitch." She muttered under her breath, looking down at the floor.

"What did you say?"

"I called you a smug son of bitch!" She yelled, looking back up at him.

He gave her a look that could freeze water. "Did you talk to Dee?"

"Yes, I did."

"Why?" He hissed, getting very close to her.

"Because I wanted to test this theory that I had; I thought that maybe there was a kind of invisible bubble around me that prevented other people from speaking to me like I was a human being. But Dee was her perfectly nice, normal little self when she and I talked so that theory was disproved." She sneered back, starting to walk away from him. "I guess it's your problem." She called back.

He saw her stride start to falter as she weaved from one side of the hall to the other. "Kara." He ran up beside her and tried to grab her arm. "Kara, you need to sit down." He told her firmly.

She spun around quickly to escape his grasp. "Don't call me that! There are very few people left in this world that I allow to call me Kara, and you are NOT one of them right now!" She yelled and then held her hand up to her forehead. "But I think I will sit down." She sat down on a crate and lowered her head. "Not because you suggested it, but because……..I'm not entirely sure that everything had a purple tinge to it before."

He stood before her. "It the Chief's brew. It fraks with the ocular nerves, causes you to see things that you didn't notice before." He reached out and almost touched the crown of her head before pulling back.

"And how would you know that?"

He winced and shut his eyes. "I just do somehow."

"Yeah? Well, I don't really think…….." She trailed off and got a very strange look on her face.

"Kara? What is it?"

She leaned forward and threw up on the floor.

Lee had to step away quickly to avoid the mess. He then started to laugh softly. "While I'm sure that the custodial crew won't appreciate it, I'm glad that you did that. It'll make it easier for me to sober you up." He came over and lifted her off the crate. She then started to walk beside him on her own, only needing a hand every now and then to guide her. "Come on."

They walked down to the head and he led her into the shower, he leaned in to turn the nozzle on. "Take off your clothes, get under the water and stay there for five minutes."

"No." She pivoted to start to walk away.

"Kara!" He called after her.

"You're not telling me what to do tonight, Adama!" She turned back to him. "You have too much frakking control over my life as it is."

"Fine!" He shouted, leaving the stall with the water still running. "Take care of yourself. I'm done." He walked past her and out of the room, slamming the hatch shut in the process.

Kara felt her blood seethe. She ran to the door, opened it, and followed him into the hallway. "Oh, no you don't! If anybody gets to slam a door on anybody, it's me on you, not the other way around." She pointed her finger at him repeatedly. "Big, long hallway full of doors that I can slam on your face all day long!"

Lee walked back to her and roughly grabbed her arm, dragging her back into the head.

"Ow. Let me go." She cried.

"Shut up. You're exhausting my patience, Lt." He pushed her under the spray. He saw her jerk at the shock of it. "Stay there."

She stood there shivering for a few minutes, her clothes getting drenched. "It's cold." She mumbled.

"Yeah, it's cold." He chuckled. "It's supposed to be. You sober up quicker if it's cold. You've been drunk enough to know that."

"Hmph." Her lip quivered. "Are you gonna let me out now?"

"That depends, how many of me do you see?" He asked her.

"One more than I want to." She hissed back.

"Meaning you only see one?" He watched as she nodded. "You sure you're sober?" She nodded again. "Prove it." He stared her down as he crossed his arms.

"Okay." She said turning off the water. "You know the girl that you dated three years ago, Angela Moseley? The first time I ever met her was when you brought her to that bar in Oceania. I think the name of it was _Maru_."

"Yeah." He confirmed, leaning back against the wall.

"When you and Zak went to the bar to get our drinks, she spoke to me for five minutes about how she noticed that when you have sex; your thrusts have to be in even number." She watched as his eyes got wide and his mouth hung open. "So what? Even if you come on thrust #17, you throw in another one just to round things off?"

He shook his head at her before leaning in close to her and smiling wryly. "Actually, I wouldn't know." He whispered. "I'm always well into the 40's by the time that happens."

She looked him up and down before rolling her eyes. "Is the fact that I can remember that so accurately proof enough for you?"

He closed his eyes. "Yeah."

He felt her walk past him and when he opened his eyes he saw her braced against the sink. He came up behind her and she looked at his reflection in the mirror.

"Go back to the bunk room. Dry off and change clothes." He started to walk away before turning back. "And brush your teeth. I don't want you smelling like a mixture of distilled poison and vomit during our conversation."

"What conversation?" She faced him. "I'm tired. I want to go to bed."

"Tough. Come to my office in ten minutes."

"Lee……."

"Do I have to make it an order, Lt.?" He snapped. "Because I will if I have to."

She shook her head in response and he walked out of the room.

* * *

Ten minutes later she knocked on his door. 

"Come in." He yelled and she entered. "Close it." He ordered from his chair as she shut the door. "Lock it." He told her as she did. "Is it locked?"

"Yes."

"You sure?" He looked up at her from his papers.

She let out an irritated exhale. "I know how to turn a frakking lock, Lee."

"Sit down." He gestured to the chair in front of his desk and stood up from his own just as she sat down. He grabbed a cup off the bookshelf and put it down on the desk in front of her. "It's coffee. Drink it."

She took the cup and drank some. "It's horrible coffee."

"I think it's been reheated about three times. 01:30 is not the best time for fresh-brewed." He paused looking down at her. "Did the shower make you feel better?"

"Just made it easier to hear my own thoughts." She took another sip. "So, definitely _not_ better."

"Yeah." He let out a breath as he sat against the desk. "What did Dee tell you?"

"Not much." She confirmed. "Your girlfriend has become remarkably adept at skirting the issue. I wonder where she gets that from."

"She's not my girlfriend, Kara." He sighed.

Kara snorted. "Whatever."

"Would it bother you if she was?"

"You can frak whoever you want, Lee." She looked away from him.

He continued to stare at her. "I'm glad you feel that way." He took the cup from her and placed it back on the desk.

"She did tell me that you could give me some answers." Kara turned back to him.

"I can try." He nodded.

She took in a stuttering breath. "You left me sitting in the mess hall. Then you said……..what you said on the flight deck."

He screwed his eyes shut. "Yeah."

"You wanna tell me why?" She looked up at him pleadingly.

He opened his eyes and looked at her sadly. "No."

She laughed, completely frustrated. "Okay. Do you wanna tell me why you've been ignoring me, avoiding me, tearing me down and basically treating me like I have the frakking plague?"

He breathed deep before lowering his head. "No."

She quickly stood up from her chair and turned away from him. "Frak you, Lee Adama." She seethed.

He tried to soothe her. "Kara—."

"You _know_ me, Lee. You know me better than maybe anybody on this ship. You know that this is the one thing I can't take. You wanna scream at me, punch me, and call me horrible names? Go ahead; that I can deal with. I've been dealing with it my entire life." She screamed at him before lowering her voice. "But the one thing I can't deal with is being treated like I don't matter. Like I'm nothing, like I'm not worth your time." She looked at him, breathing harshly, the tears brimming in her eyes. "You know this about me………..and you're deliberately doing it to hurt me."

He rose from the edge of the desk. "No, Kara, I wasn't trying to hurt you."

She scoffed sadly. "Then I'd really hate to see what you could do if you actually set your mind to it."

He started pacing the room. "I never meant to hurt you, Kara." He pleaded with her in exasperation. "Gods, everything is so frakked up."

"It's frakked up because you want it that way." She sneered.

"No, Kara. It's frakked up because it just _is_." He covered his eyes with his hand. "I never meant to hurt you……….Uhhhhh! I never meant for any of this to happen!" He screamed.

"Any of WHAT to happen?" She screamed back.

"This." He replied simply and then grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her.

He kissed her so long and so hard that she thought she would collapse from lack of breath. She moved her lips against his with equal force and rhythm, but her body stayed frozen. The only other part of her that was touching him was her hands where they rested lightly on his forearms.

He heard her whimpering lightly and let her go. Pulling back from her, he rested his forehead against hers.

"You just kissed me." She uttered in amazement.

"Yeah."

"Okay. Well, okay. That's um," She moved back from him and crossed her arms in front of her. "Is that why you've been acting weird?" She whispered, looking at him strangely.

"Yeah." He replied.

"Is that what you said to Dee?" She asked him, her swollen lower lip quivering. "That you wanted to do that to me?"

He took the step that bridged their small divide. "The only thing that I said to Dee," He cupped her face again. "Was your name while I was doing _that_ to _her._" He kissed her lightly this time.

"Hmmm." She said as he separated their lips to take a breath. "That's ironic."

"What do you mean?"

She laughed ruefully. "Let's just say that's a common problem with the two of us."

"Okay." He laughed, puzzled. When he wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned in to kiss her.

She stopped him. "Lee." She stepped back, leaning against the wall. "I need a minute to………wrap my little brain around this. I mean, two minutes ago I thought you hated me."

"No, you didn't." He told her firmly. "Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you knew that I could never hate you."

"Do you think that this makes it all better?" She gestured her hand back and forth between them. "I mean the way you've been treating me—."

"I know." He sighed. "And it's not a justification for that. Just an explanation."

"Okay. Okay, well that's……..that's um…….. I'm gonna need some time." She nodded.

"Um, alright." He looked to the floor and then looked back up at her. "How much time?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. My mind keeps saying 'he just kissed me, he just kissed me' over and over again."

"You said that before." He gave her a small smile.

"It's worth repeating for verification purposes." She looked back at him, her face blank. "You _kissed_ me."

"I know." He said sheepishly.

"Are you gonna do it again?" She questioned warningly.

His heart sunk at the hardness of her tone. "No." He whispered apologetically, as he dropped his head to his chest.

"Okay, then." She walked over to him, lifted his chin and traced her tongue against his bottom lip until he groaned, opening his mouth so that she could slip it inside. She leaned against him until he wrapped his arms around her, melding their bodies.

"Kara." He mumbled against her mouth, even as he delved his tongue inside.

She pulled her lips from his and grabbed his face in her hand. "What did I tell you, Captain? The talking is gonna cease for a while." She whispered before kissing him again.

He buried his left hand in her hair as she started to undo the buttons on his shirt. He lifted his right hand to travel up under her tanks and felt her bare skin prickle beneath his touch. She heard his breath skip.

They stopped to look at each other and smiled lustfully………..before sinking to the floor.

-TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Two hours later, Kara collapsed on top of him in a sweaty, gasping, delirious daze. She kissed his collarbone, letting her lips brush over his throat and jaw before traveling up to his mouth. She pulled back to look at him, giggling breathily as he tucked the fallen hair back behind her ears. She laid down next to him and settled into the hollow of his arm. She heard him moan in exhausted arousal and looked up at the ceiling breathing in short, staccato breaths.

"Well," She said matter-of-factly. "That was a new development."

She felt the laughter reverberate through him as she turned to rest her cheek against his bare chest. "Wasn't new, Kara." He exhaled, still trying to get his breathing under control.

She lifted her chin and placed it up close to his neck as she kissed his Adam's apple. "You're telling me that we've been having sex all along and I just didn't know it?" She teased.

His fingers skated up her spine. "No. If we had been having sex, you _definitely_ would have known it."

"Humility is such a mortal virtue. Figures that you wouldn't have any, _Apollo._" She leisurely let her fingers crawl up his chest.

"What we just did was so _wrong_." He said in a blatantly obvious mock-serious tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She said as he grabbed her hand and brought it up to kiss her fingers. "Did it offend your deep sense of propriety and incredibly-ingrained prudishness, Sir?"

"No." He mumbled as his tongue swept against the length of her finger. "I just wanted to be on top."

She quickly pulled her finger away and moved to look down on his face that was now split by a wide, anticipatory grin. "Not a chance in hell. Floor's too cold."

"That's why I made sure that the clothes were underneath us." His hand clenched on her hip. "I'm always considerate."

"Has anybody knocked on the door?" She inquired, nodding to the hatch.

"Don't know." He uttered fervently, running his hands up her ribcage.

"You don't _know_?" She asked in amazement.

"I was a little preoccupied." He replied, nuzzling her neck.

"I noticed." She chuckled. "Very focused, very attentive, and I don't know what Angela was whining about, I happened to _like _the freakishly obsessive-compulsive even number thing."

"Thank you." He whispered as his lips traveled up to her cheek. "And that thing that you did? With the ear…….you know? Where you……." He let his tongue circle the shell of her ear, earning an appreciative groan from her before he bit the lobe.

"So, you liked that, did you?"

He laughed softly into her hair. "It would take about five hours to catalog all the things that you did that I liked." He breathed deep. "And we don't have five hours."

"Speaking of which, what time is it?"

"It's—." He looked at his wrist but found it bare. "Hey, where's my watch?"

"I think you took it off." She giggled. "Or _flung_ it off I should say."

"Yeah, I _was_ pretty frantic to remove every barrier." He gleamed at her.

"And you thought your _watch_ was a barrier?" She teased.

"Anything that keeps any inch of my skin from touching any inch of yours has no place on our bodies." He confirmed.

Kara sat up and turned the digital clock on his desk to face them. "It's 03:45, I need to be in the ready room in two hours to get ready for a 06:00 training seminar." She looked back at him. "When are you on?"

"I'm on _now_." He replied as he sat up beside her.

She snorted in shock. "You mean to tell me that you just frakked a junior officer, in your office, during duty hours?"

"Uh-huh." He smirked, running his hands up her back.

"Well, Captain Adama, I may just have to report you for that."

"Your name would be on the report as the other guilty party." He pointed out.

"Yeah, but they expect it from _me_. If they found out _you_ did it; that would cause quite a stir." She leaned in to kiss him.

"Frak!" He clutched his head in his hands.

"Well, if you insist." She smiled as she ran her hands down his torso. "But you'll have to make it quick."

He grabbed her hands to stop their journey. "I'm supposed to counsel a new pilot in the conference room at 04:00." He told her apologetically.

"You have a meeting in the middle of the night?" She questioned skeptically.

"It's not the middle of the night for him, or me. We're both on duty."

"Well, it's a good thing you remembered. This would be quite difficult to explain when he came to your office looking for you after you stood him up." She reached for her bra and slipped it over her head. "Door's locked, it'd take us a while to answer it when he knocked because we'd be busy putting on our clothes, and he'd notice that we were both in here………. even a wet-behind-the-ears rookie would start to ask questions." She finished as she put on her shirt. "Uh, you're on my pants." She pointed beneath him as she smiled and placed a soft kiss on his cheek. "Time to get dressed, CAG."

Two minutes later, they both had on all of their clothes. "And you still haven't seen my watch?" He asked looking around the room.

"Nope. We found the big items. The little ones will turn up eventually." She smoothed a crinkle in the fabric of his jacket.

"How do I look?" He grinned.

"Like you just had the best sex of your life."

His face grew puzzled. "Why would that be? The best sex of my life happened when I was twenty." He laughed and grasped her hand before she smacked his shoulder. "I'm joking." He whispered as he pulled her to him. "You have to know I'm joking. Surely you must have noticed. My eyes have never rolled into the back of my head _quite_ that far before."

"Hmmm." She whimpered. "Leave now. Or I'll make you late for sure."

He nodded and kissed her on the forehead before walking out of the room.

* * *

Kara waited a good five minutes before leaving as well. As she closed the hatch behind her, she noticed Helo walking down the hall in her direction. He stopped in mid-stride when he saw her and then when he continued, it was slowly and with a knowing smile on his face.

"Starbuck?" He smirked. "You, uh, have a 'late night meeting' with the CAG?"

"It's 04:00, Karl. Shouldn't you be asleep?" She replied in annoyance.

"I'm not on duty until 15:00, I've got plenty of time to sleep." He nodded to the door before grinning widely at her. "So, I take it you and Apollo have worked out your problems? Or is that red mark on your neck _actually_ a bruise?"

She grew irritated. "Okay, you need to stop right now. Do you really want to compare and contrast sexual partners? Because I have a feeling I'd win."

"I won't say another word." He held up his hands in defeat.

"You better not. If anybody else finds out about this, I'm coming after you, and I don't think that you would find that pleasant."

"Nobody will hear anything from me, but they might figure it out. You…….."

"What?" She asked concerned.

He smiled slightly. "You look different, Kara."

"I can't possibly look all that different from the last time I saw you." She looked down to her feet and then back up her own body.

"You'd be surprised what a few hours will do." He shrugged and walked on.

* * *

Kara had gone back to her bunk and slept for an hour and a half. She woke up happy and refreshed despite the small amount of rest and the ache that lingered in her whole body. She took a long, hot shower and dressed for the day. She walked down the hall, desperately trying to smother the small smile that had been plastered on her face since she had left Lee's office. She had nearly accomplished it too, until she saw him walking down the hall coming towards her. As he walked past her, he gave her a small nod and a meaningful wink. 

She walked into the briefing room and all the trainees came to attention. She quickly put them at ease and stood at the podium. She had a nervous habit of gripping the sides and drumming her fingers against it, today was no different.

Only this time, she noticed that there was no metallic clink as she did it. She looked down at her thumb and noticed that there was no ring.

She nearly choked out a sob, but fortified herself before anyone noticed. Her heart sunk to the pit of her stomach, she had to fight to breathe.

"Hey, Lt. Thrace? I was wondering if we could go over the negative-G pushover thing again." A trainee asked. "I'm having a hard time."

She found her voice to speak, but it was soft. "We need to take a break."

One trainee chuckled in disbelief. "We just got here."

"Who's the frakking instructor here?" She snapped back as she started to exit the room. "I'm instructing you to amuse yourselves for twenty minutes."

She walked down the hallway in a numb stupor. '_The ring, the ring, I took off the frakking ring! How the hell could I do that? Just take off the ring? Why don't I just remove an arm, too?'_

That ring hadn't been off of her hand in well over three years……………

"_I got you something." Zak had said as he placed it in front of her._

"_What is it?" She asked shaking the small box._

"_Gods, Kara. Please tell me that you're not one of those people who asks what something is when all they have to do is open the box."_

_She opened it and set it back down on the table. "It's nice." She said quietly._

"_I noticed that you don't ever wear jewelry."_

_She laughed sarcastically. "Yeah. Well, I used to wear one side of a heart necklace that my BFF gave me, but the little bitch asked for it back when she got pissed at me because we wore the same pink dress to the Winter Dance. I've been heartbroken ever since."_

_He laughed as she nervously traced the band that was still sitting in the box. "We've only been together for three weeks, Zak. I don't think that you should be giving me rings."_

"_It's not an engagement ring, Kara." He teased as he pulled the ring out of the box. "Look, it's too big to fit on that finger. It goes on your thumb."_

"_Who'd wear a ring on their thumb? I don't know anybody that does that."_

"_You're not 'anybody', Thrace. Besides, you need to wear something shiny that will distract people from the enchantment of your eyes." He took her hand and slipped it on. "See? Plain silver band, not a gemstone on it or lacy pattern engraved in it. It's simple, beautiful. Just like you."_

_She smiled sweetly at him as she leaned across the table to kiss him. "I really like it."_

"_Promise me you'll wear it" He kissed her back. "Even if you chuck me to the curb three days from now, I want you to have it."_

"_I'll wear it. I'll never take it off."_

Had she really been in such a gods damn hurry to frak Zak's brother that she had followed his lead and discarded everything that touched her body except for him?

She had to lean against the wall as she stood outside Lee's office. When she opened the door, she was beyond relieved that she didn't find him in there. She spent the next five minutes tearing the room apart. She found his watch underneath a bookshelf and put it back on his desk.

'_I hadn't thought about Zak in six hours. I'd never gone longer than three hours before.'_

As she crawled around on her hands and knees looking for the ring, she found something else. Both sets of their dogtags resting on the floor in the corner of the room.

She picked them both off the floor and held hers in her fingers. Her _one_ dogtag. Her heart froze. Where had she left the other one? '_Oh, yeah._ _In the hand of a man that she left behind in a nuclear wasteland.' _She slipped the chain back over her head.

She heard her own breath escaping in sobs and she sunk to the floor. She settled into the corner and as she pulled her knees up to her chest, she felt something hard underneath her, digging into her skin. She reached down and pulled out the ring. She slipped it back on her thumb and buried her face in her hands.

'_My gods, what kind of horrible person am I?'_

* * *

She went back to training and spoke in straightforward, monotone phrases. She flew CAP and never uttered a word besides "affirmative", "negative", "copy" and "understood". She walked down the hall like a tranquilized woman and never even heard Racetrack and Cally when they asked her to join them in the mess hall. She just grabbed a bottle of water and walked back to his office. She sat there until she heard the hatch open. 

"Hey." He smiled widely at her. "This is a pleasant surprise."

She smiled back faintly. "Did you sleep?"

"I was exhausted, haven't slept so well in months. So thanks for that." He chuckled as he put the papers in his hand on the desk and sat down. "Hey! It's my watch." He said as he picked it up.

"Yeah." She replied quietly.

"Where'd you find it?" He asked off-handedly.

"It was under a bookshelf." She said numbly. "We _threw_ it across the room and it fell under a bookshelf." She repeated in a tortured voice. "We threw it without thinking, without caring where it would land." Her voice quivered. "Without knowing if it would break on impact against the floor."

His eyes lifted up from the papers and he looked at her, concern etched on his face. "Kara, what's wrong?"

"We weren't thinking at all." Her gaze stayed locked on a random spot on the wall. "Not about the past, not about the future. Just the present."

He grew nervous, terrified and resigned all at the same time. "And what's wrong with that? The past is dead. And who knows if we'll even _have_ a future." He let out a deep sigh. "You're backing out of this, aren't you?"

She looked back at him, a single tear falling out the corner of her eye. "I don't think I can do this."

His eyes silently pleaded with her. "I can't believe I have to tell _you_ this, but……….you _don't_ think, you just do it."

She sucked in a harsh breath. "Then I just can't do this."

He looked at her for quite a while, his face expressionless. "I thought that I couldn't do it either. You remember what I said last night about the Chief's booze making you see things that you didn't notice before? Well, a week ago, after I said your name while I was kissing Dualla, I left feeling confused and disgusted with myself. I went and got some of the Chief's stuff and tried to drink myself into oblivion, but all it did was make me see how I can't _not_ do this."

"So basically you're saying that you got drunk and then you wanted to sleep with me?"

He jerked at her remark and his face distorted. "No, Kara. That _isn't_ what I'm saying! And you know—."

"You know what? That isn't where I wanted this to go. I'm not trying to place any blame here, or tell you that what we've been feeling isn't real. I'm just tying to tell you what I already told you: that I can't do this."

He chuckled ruefully. "Why am I not surprised?"

"That's not fair, Lee." She covered her eyes with her hands.

He stood up from his chair. "None of this is _fair_, Kara!"

She snapped. "I _know _that!" She paused a moment and her voice got very low as she looked at him again. "I know that, Lee. All of this is so unfair. Because if we were back on the colonies, if we didn't have this past between us, if we were different people……… If I had met you in a bar, or a park, or a waiting room; I'd want to leave with you. I'd talk to you for five minutes and know that I wanted to be with you forever." She sobbed once and then drew in another breath, her voice growing steadier. "But we're _not _back on the colonies, we _do_ have a past between us, and we _aren't_ different people."

"And you can't let us be together with all those things in the way." He finished for her.

She nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It doesn't matter." The bitterness evident in his voice as he walked to the door. "How did I know you'd find a way to ruin this?"

She spoke quietly as he opened the hatch. "Because I'm a screw up, Lee. Try and keep that in mind."

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

He wasn't speaking to her. It was worse than before. At least before he spoke to her about work matters, or yelled at her, or sniped at her, or mocked her.

Now he wouldn't even do that. When he needed anything from her, he sent an intermediary. And no one wanted to be that person, since it involved coming into contact with either Starbuck's iciness or her volcanic tirades to '_make the arrogant, repressed, tightass bastard come get what he needs himself and not send some lame-ass errand boy instead.'_

The other way he found to not speak to her was to schedule them in different places at all times. He justified this to his father by saying that she was more than capable of handling the duties of the CAG on her own and that having them both be in the same place was a misallocation of human resources. Perfectly reasonable explanation.

_What a crock of shit._

She set her alarm clock for the middle of her eight hour off-shift, and waited for him to open the hatch. She sat on the edge of her bunk and watched him as he walked into the quarters, completely ignoring her existence. He stood at his locker undressing when she rose off of her bed and came up behind him.

"Lee, I—."

He interrupted her harshly. "Do you know where my other dogtag is?"

"What?"

"My other dogtag. My chain was on my desk after……….so you must have found it, but there's only one dogtag now. Do you know where the other one is?"

She was exceptionally grateful that the chain that held her tag _and his_ was underneath her shirt. "No." She lied.

"Huh." He took off his jacket. "That's weird." He added coldly.

"Lee, you need to talk to me." She said quietly.

"Why? Something I need to know that you can't put in a report?"

Her face started to crumple. "No. We just haven't spoken to each other in almost a week and I was wondering if you were okay."

He finally turned around to face her and gave her a frosty glare. "What do you care?"

Her expression changed to a hard, embittered, but slightly astonished one.

He just stood there as she looked at him for what seemed like an eternity. "What?" He finally asked her.

"Nothing." She replied simply. "I'm just wondering how big a frakking idiot you _are._"

"Excuse me?" He asked offended.

"What made you ever think, EVER THINK that I don't care?" She shouted.

He looked around nervously at all of the curtained bunks in the room. "Kara, keep your voice down."

"Are you really so oblivious or insensitive or, or, or………..I can't even think of another word bad enough to describe what you are, that you think that I don't care about you? Gods! I did this for you, so that I wouldn't lose you!"

"And how exactly am I supposed to know that?" He screamed at her, despite his previous admonishment of _her_ loud volume.

"Maybe you could have looked at my face these last few days as you went around like I had never held a place in your world, and realized that all I wanted, all I _prayed for_ was for you to walk up to me and say 'hi'." She reached over and slammed his locker shut, absolutely awakening all the people in the room that were not already awake. "Stupid jerk." She hissed at him before storming out.

Kara sat in the ready room ten minutes later going over enlistment requests. She couldn't have stayed in the bunk room, she didn't want to use his office because of, well because of certain reasons, and the mess hall was somewhere that other people would be talking to each other. She didn't want to hear that. She didn't want to hear people having nice conversations when the only person that she wanted to talk to wouldn't even grant her a single kind word.

"Hi."

She looked up from her chair and saw him standing in front of her, grinning cautiously. "You really mean that?" She asked quietly and with a smile. He nodded.

He sat down next to her. "My name's Steven. What's yours?"

Her face grew puzzled until she saw him give her a 'go along with me' gesture of the hand. "I'm Rachel." She replied, still quite uncertain.

"What do you do for a living, Rachel?"

She pondered it for a while. "I'm a stewardess."

He shook his head in amusement. "Can't even stay out of planes in your make-believe life, can you?"

"Yeah, well." She shrugged. "So, what do you do, Steven?" She asked him.

"I own a coffee shop." He said simply.

"Really? That's interesting. What's it called, _Steven's Coffee Shop_?"

"No." He shook his head in insult. "I'd never name it something that unoriginal."

"So………..?"

"I named it after a girl I once knew. It's called _Starbuck's_."

"Really?" She smiled widely as he nodded. "And where would I find _Starbuck's_?"

He thought for a moment. "Everywhere, actually. There are a lot of them. I'm incredibly rich."

"How exactly does someone become rich by selling coffee?" She asked intrigued.

"Charge a lot of money for it."

"Nobody pays a lot of money for coffee." She told him.

He smirked at her. "It's _really_ good coffee." He paused as she laughed. "So you're a stewardess, huh? Is that why you're here, in the _airport waiting lounge_?"

She saw where he was going with this. "Yeah, I'm waiting for my connecting flight."

"You mind if I keep you company?" He leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the one in front of him.

"Not at all." She said looking over at him as she rested her head against the back of her chair. "So, Steven, do they sell pie at Starbuck's?"

Lee sighed. "How long are we gonna do this, Kara?" He dropped his chin to his chest.

She grimaced. "Don't do that, Lee. Can't we just pretend for a little while longer?" She pleaded. "Because you know when we go back to reality, that I'm gonna be right. That there are a million reasons why we can't do this."

"Yeah." He whispered in understanding. "Name them please."

She looked at him for a moment in shock at his order. "Okay." She hesitated. "We're in the middle of a war where we both might die tomorrow, you and I have an incredibly frakked-up, incestuous history, you're my CAG, and finally and most importantly…… you and I would tear each other to shreds. We'd burn each other up and then fizzle out. We'd totally wreck each other, Lee."

"I think you'd be amazed at how blissful being a total wreck could be." He whispered, looking away from her. He didn't speak for a few seconds. "All the reasons you just named are perfectly valid ones."

"Thank you." She said firmly.

"Too bad none of them are the real reason." He said frankly. He turned his face to look right at her. "Why won't you let yourself be happy? Why do you think you don't deserve to be? When did that happen?"

"You know when." She told him softly. "And you know _why_."

"You didn't do anything bad enough that you need to punish yourself for the rest of your life. You acted rashly, you used bad judgment. People do that everyday. Just look at our two bosses. You don't see _them_ being punished."

"I think getting shot and dying of cancer qualifies as punishment, Lee." She looked straight ahead to the front of the room.

"Bad things happen, Kara. It doesn't mean that people deserve it."

"I do." She stated sadly.

"That's frakked up." He told her. "But even if that were true, how many lives have you saved in the last two years? How many in the last two _months?_ How many people have you given hope to? How many people have you helped?" He reached to turn her head back to him. "The karmic scale is tilted in your favor, Thrace. There isn't some cosmic force out to destroy everything good in your life, unless you consider _yourself_ a cosmic force." He paused as he turned to look away from her again. "Face it, Kara. The only thing keeping you from being happy is you."

"I just don't think I can do this right now." She muttered.

He jerked his head back to her and smiled a small smile. "I like the 'right now' that you added to that statement."

She shook her head. "It just tumbled out, it doesn't mean anything."

"Yes it does, I know it does. I've worn you down." He nodded to himself. "It means that someday, sometime in the future you might be able to stop being so stubborn and come into my office and tell me that you want to do this." He gestured back and forth between them.

"Maybe." She confirmed, trying to appease him. "But Lee that is a _MAYBE_, because I don't think that you quite realize the mess that you'd be getting yourself into. And if someday down the line you _do_ realize it and move on, I won't be hurt."

"Noted."

"And I still don't know if I'll ever be able to do this. And I don't want either of our lives to stop while we wait torturously for this thing that may _NEVER _happen. If it happens, it does; if it doesn't happen, it doesn't. We don't have any claim on each other, we don't have any expectations. Nothing's changed."

"Understood." He nodded, looking around the room. "Well then," He sighed. "I guess it's a good thing that it never went any further than the once."

"Twice." She corrected.

"Huh?"

"It happened _twice_." She said, growing irritated. "I can't believe you don't remember the second time."

"I _remember _it." He told her firmly as he stood up. "I was just counting it as the same time. Since we didn't leave the room, or the place on the floor, or each others arms." He looked down at her as she smiled thoughtfully. "So it was twice."

"Four times for me, actually. If we're counting how many……….." She trailed off, biting her lip. "Okay," She laughed sheepishly. "I'm not gonna finish that sentence." She stood up too and they both walked to the door.

"Okay." He replied, slightly proud of himself for what she had just said. "I have no expectations, and neither one of us has any pressure. If it's meant to be, somehow it will find a way to be. If not, we'll be friends."

"I _want_ us to be friends." She affirmed.

"We will be." He touched her shoulder gently. "I'll be the best friend you've ever had, Kara."

She cupped the side of his face with her hand. "You already were, Lee."

* * *

Three days later she stood in the conference room with President Roslin and Commander Adama, looking over a star chart and trying to devise the best way to search for the Lagoon Nebula. 

"This way would be the fastest." The Commander stated, pointing to a mapped out path across the chart.

"Fastest isn't necessarily the best, Sir." Starbuck said, looking up at him from the table.

"I'm starting to think that it _is_, Lt. Thrace." The President interjected. "People are starting to get anxious. They want to get to Earth."

"Do they want to get there as charred remains?" Kara looked at her. "That path takes us very close to an unstable pulsar. If we go this way………." She pointed to a line on the chart. "We would bypass it completely. It would take longer, but it would be safer."

The President looked over to the Commander with an stunned expression; he just seemed amused.

"What?" She asked the both of them.

"Nothing, Lt." Roslin said placatingly.

"No, it wasn't _nothing_. The two of you just shared a look at my expense and I want to know what it was about."

Commander Adama raised his hands in surrender. "We're just amazed that Lt. 'pull it out of the fire/push it to the extreme' Starbuck is advocating a more tactical way of doing things."

"Yes, Lt. Thrace." The President agreed. "If we didn't know any better, we'd think that you had something that you wanted to stick around for."

"No, Madam President." She corrected. "It's just different when there are 50,000 other people involved. I put my ass on the line—." She paused as she saw both sets of eyes get wide. "Pardon the expression……trying to _find _a route to lead these people down and I guess I just don't want it to all be for nothing when we incinerate because we wanted to shave a few months off our trip."

Roslin and Adama again looked to each other in a sort of put-out amusement.

"Or I could just be having a bad day." Kara admitted. "I'm not sure."

The phone on the wall buzzed harshly and the Commander walked over and answered it. "Commander Adama." He answered and then paused. "We'll be there shortly."

He motioned for the two women to join him and they walked to CIC.

When they entered, he walked to the monitors. "Is there any change?" He asked Gaeta.

"No sir."

"Why wasn't I informed as this was happening?" He looked to the Lieutenant.

"It was over moments after it started." Gaeta answered. "The CAP managed to take out all four raiders, but soon after, Viper 317 was damaged severely by flying debris."

Kara's eyes and ears perked up at the designation of the wounded plane. She walked over to the com station. "Can you contact him?" She asked Dee.

"Negative, Lt." Dee told her. "Helo called it in. Apollo's primary com link must have been damaged."

"Captain Apollo is the pilot in the damaged plane?" The President inquired nervously as she came up to stand beside the Commander in front of the monitor.

"Yes, Madam President." He answered.

Kara turned to Dee. "Keep trying the emergency channels, Dee."

"I already have, Lt. He's not answering."

Kara thought for a minute. "Try Gamma channel."

Dee shook her head. "That channel's only used for mike checks, Starbuck."

"Just do it, Dee." She pleaded softly.

Dee nodded. "Apollo/Galactica. Do you copy?"

The coms crackled and then: "Hey, Dee." Lee answered over the speakers. "Fancy talking to you here."

Kara smiled lightly to herself.

Just then another voice came over the speakers. "Galactica/Helo. Be advised that it is doubtful Captain Adama will be able to safely land due to severe damage both to thrusters and his left flank. Recommend that you order ejection."

Commander Adama nodded and turned to Dee. "Tell him to eject."

"Apollo/Galactica. You are ordered to eject and stand by for Raptor pickup. Helo and Racetrack are nearby."

"Negative, Galactica." Lee replied. "I'm bringing the plane in. Have Damage Control teams ready."

"Dee?" Commander Adama looked at her again and shook his head.

Dee got the message. "Apollo/Galactica. Be advised you are ordered to eject immediately."

"Negative." He replied. "Landing is possible."

"Not _safe _landing." Gaeta interjected, speaking to Adama.

"Give me a damn headset." Starbuck hissed.

Dee handed her one.

Kara put on the headset and turned it on. "Eject from your frakking plane NOW, moron."

"Kara—." He said.

"_Did I say you could talk?" _She shouted.

"Landing is possible." He replied brusquely.

"Not according to Helo, he said the damage is too severe."

"Helo's not the one flying the thing." He yelled.

"No." She yelled back. "He's just the one with a clear view of the gaping hole in the side."

"I'm not ejecting, Starbuck."

"Are you really gonna argue with me while everybody left in the world that cares about you is listening? Or are you gonna do what I'm ordering you to do?"

"You can't _give _me orders, Lt." He hissed back.

"Uh-huh. You know that Colonial Fleet rule book that you keep tucked under your pillow and make love to every night? Take a closer look at it. Every time you're off the ship for _any _reason, including CAP, the Lead Pilot is the de facto CAG. I _can_ give you orders."

"We need the plane, Starbuck." He told her.

"The plane is scrap metal no matter what you do." She pointed out. "It's not worth losing a good pilot." She finished softly.

He was silent for a moment. "It's too late. I'm now 2000 ft from Galactica, ejection not a possibility."

Commander Adama looked to Gaeta. "Alert Damage Control, and send out a med-team."

Starbuck threw off her headset. "Son of a bitch!" She hissed.

Kara walked up to stand between the President and the Commander in front of the monitor. She stayed there for a minute, holding her breath, forcing her mind to force her heart to keep beating.

"He's aboard." Dee shouted and waited several seconds. "DC teams reporting no fire. Repeat, no fire."

Kara turned around and braced her hands on the tactical table, she lowered her head.

"Will he be alright?" Roslin asked Adama.

"The fact that there is no fire is a good sign." He paused. "But he still could have injuries due to the hard impact."

They waited in silence for about five minutes before Dee spoke up. "Chief Tyrol reporting from the deck, Sir."

"Put him on." Commander Adama told Dee as she put Tyrol on over the speakers. "Chief?"

"Sir." Tyrol replied. "Captain Adama seems to be okay. The med-team just took him away. Damage Control team had to cut him out of the plane. He was jarred but he was conscious."

"Did he say anything, Chief?" Kara asked.

"Yeah." Tyrol laughed. "He said 'That was fun'."

Roslin clutched her chest with relief and chuckled. "That sounds familiar."

* * *

Thirty minutes later Kara, Roslin and Adama stood in the landing bay looking at the mangled mess that used to be Viper 317 as the deck crew worked on it. 

"Amazing." The President said in wonder. "And they're sure that Captain Apollo is okay?"

"He's _fine_." Kara sneered disgustedly as she never took her eyes off the plane.

"Well, as much as I would love to stick around to check on him, I have business on _Colonial One_ that I have to get back to." She pointed across the bay. "Look, my shuttle is even here."

"It was an honor having you aboard, Madam President." He nodded to her as they both walked a few steps away. "I'm sorry that our strategy session was cut short."

"Don't be. It was all very exciting." She paused, looking back to the plane. "Although someone might want to instill in your son that a piece of metal is not worth his safety."

"Don't worry." Adama said looking back to Kara. "I have a feeling he'll be properly instilled."

Roslin laughed softly and started to walk the remaining way to her shuttle. He walked back to Kara.

"What are you thinking, Starbuck?"

"I'm thinking I'm gonna kill your son." She spoke before she even grasped what she would be saying. Her face contorted in pain and she nearly doubled over at the sting of carelessness in her own remark.

He looked at her sadly. "No, you won't." He touched her head. "You would never and you _have _never done that."

When she looked at him, she was crying quietly. She held her palm up to her forehead. "I don't know what to do." She sobbed before taking a deep breath. "I know that there are things that I don't deserve. _This_ is my penance."

He took a deep breath. "What is it that they say about baptism by fire, Kara? That the flame melts away all your sins so that everything is made clean and you can start over brand new?" He watched as she looked at him uncertainly. "I think that enough has been burned in the last several months for that to qualify." He pulled her head to his shoulder. "How did you know that he'd be on Gamma channel?"

"Flight school." She answered. "They used to record everything for training purposes. Gamma was the only channel that they didn't. We used to talk on it when we were flying without the fear of anyone hearing us."

"You two really are amazing." He said as she lifted her head up. "I've never understood what you're waiting for."

"Sir—." She tried to explain it away.

"Do you think I don't see?" He chuckled. "The funny thing about being my age is that you remember what it was like to be your age and think that people as old as I am now don't see what's right in front of them. You think that the world around us is somehow dulled or dampened or blunted because we've been in it for so long. When in fact, it's just the opposite."

"I've never thought that there was anything that you couldn't see if you _wanted_ to see it." She corrected.

"I see it, the way that the two of you look at each other. I notice the looks of longing, awe and complete acceptance that you give each other and think you hide so well from me. I notice. The only thing _you _don't notice is that the look _I_ give the two of you in regards to it is an approving one." He kissed her head.

"I don't know if……..what if I frak this up like every other good thing I've had in my life?"

"You _haven't_ frakked up every good thing. There are people left in your life that love you, Kara. Not everybody can say that." He took her hand. "Time to grow up, Starbuck." He stared meaningfully at the President's shuttle as it was loaded into the flight tubes. "Everything could end tomorrow. Who knows how long any of us have left?" He looked at her, looked away, shook his head and then left.

* * *

She stood in the hallway outside sickbay and pushed off the wall as she saw Helo exiting. He stopped to stand in front of her. "Hey, Starbuck." 

"He's left already?" She asked already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, he left ten minutes ago. Cottle cleared him."

"I'm sorry that I missed him."

"Not that sorry. Since you obviously waited until you knew that he'd be gone." He pointed out.

She didn't respond. "How is he?"

"Fine. That Viper is a wreck and he walks away with barely a scratch."

"He's lucky." She confirmed.

"He's blessed." Helo corrected. "He's protected. The gods are looking out for him. And despite all the ways that he's helped humanity in the last few months, I don't think he's done what they kept him alive to do." He looked Kara up and down and then smiled subtly. "I don't think _either_ of you have."

Kara shook her head sadly. "Karl, two people like me and Apollo aren't supposed to be together. That's not the way the world works."

"You know the great thing about the world now, Kara?" He leaned in close to her. "We don't live in it anymore." He looked back to the sickbay door. "Did you know he was waiting for you? He never said anything, but you could tell that when he looked to the door every five seconds, he was watching to see if you'd come through it."

"So he was waiting for me and I didn't come?" She said numbly. "So I let him down." She snorted in disgust of herself. "That's typical."

Helo grew frustrated. "I don't have time for your pity party." He started to walk away.

"I wasn't feeling sorry for myself, Helo." She claimed. "You know what I meant." She stated harshly.

He chuckled lowly, turning back to her. "Hardly ever."

Then in virtually the same way that the Commander had, he looked at her sympathetically, looked away, and then shook his head.

"Okay, you know what?" She said, irritated. "That is the _second_ time today that someone has done that to me."

"Done what?" He walked back.

"Looked at me, looked away and then shook their head." She replied. "And I wanna know what the hell it means."

"Well………the look means that we know what it's like to not be able to be with the person that we want to be with." His face grew sad, amused, and reconciled all at the same time. "And the headshake means that we don't have a whole lot of sympathy for people that _can_ be………but chose _not _to be."

She closed her eyes to stop the flow of tears that were threatening to fall. When she opened them again, he was gone.

* * *

She opened the door to Lee's office and found him rummaging through a drawer, a stitched up wound on his forehead and a bandage around his left arm. She pushed the door just enough for her to slink through, then closed it and locked it behind her. 

He noticed her in the room. "Hey." He said in greeting before sitting down and returning his attention to the drawer. "I'm sorry about the thing earlier. You were probably right, I probably should've just ejected. The plane's worthless anyways. But hey, at least I gave everybody a good show." He laughed to himself. "Cottle thinks I need to stay away from you, though. He mentioned something about 'Thrace's bad habits rubbing off'."

She leaned against the door, completely silent.

He looked back up to her when he realized that she still had not spoken.

She stood there looking at him in awed reverence, a beatific smile on her face, a small tear on her cheek.

His eyes got wide and he swallowed loudly, his heart full of hopeful anticipation. "We're not gonna be friends anymore, are we?"

She walked over to him slowly. "No." She whispered as he turned in his chair to face her and she stroked his cheek. "I don't think we are."

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Three weeks later Kara sat in the mess hall having a late dinner with Kat and another pilot, Max.

"So you cleaned up pretty well at the game the other night, Starbuck. Even though you had to leave early." Kat told her. "It's kind of irritating, actually. Even when you don't stay for the whole game, you always end up on top."

Kara closed her eyes at the invading memory of Lee moving steadily above her that night. "Not always." She corrected, taking a sip of coffee.

"Why did you have to leave early, Starbuck?" Max asked.

"I had to go to _Cloud Nine_. There was a meeting." Kara smiled politely. '_Oh, there was a meeting alright.'_

"Captain Adama had to go to that meeting too, didn't he?" Kat teased, a large smirk on her face.

"Yes." Kara said simply. "His presence was required." '_He was a vital component, actually.'_

"Did you resolve the argument that I saw you having with the CAG last week?" Max asked Starbuck innocently as she took a bite of her food.

"Yes." Starbuck replied, remembering how their anger over conflicting training techniques had led to something equally intense when he dragged her into his office. "The resolution was quite satisfactory."

Kara saw Kat smile knowingly behind her glass.

"I know you dish it out as well as you take it," Max said. "But that guy always seems to be on your back."

"Or her front." Kat mumbled before wincing at the pain of Starbuck's foot as it kicked her under the table. "Um, so Max, how was your night with Lt. Reddick?"

"My night?" Max laughed wryly. "You mean my _forty minutes_? It wasn't even worth that much time………what a loser."

"Really? I've heard good things about him." Kat added.

"Yeah." Max snorted. "Probably spread them around himself. It's my own fault. I should have known that anybody that vociferous was going to be all talk and very little action."

"I'll say." Starbuck laughed. "It's usually the quiet ones that are the powder-kegs just ready to blow. Then all you have to do is make sure you're in the blast zone."

"Hmmmm. Or be the spark that sets it off." Max cooed. "Speaking of quiet bombs waiting to explode, I was thinking of going after the CAG."

Kat almost choked on her food. "_Captain Adama_?"

Kara shook her head and smiled to herself as she looked down at the table.

"Sure." Max answered, semi-offended by Kat's shock. "Why not? I know he's a bit repressed, but I doubt he's like that behind closed doors. And his drive may be hard to deal with when he's your superior officer, but imagine what he's like when he's _under_ you. That kind of diligence and dedication is not only an asset to the Fleet, but its _members_ too." Max laughed and Kara had to bite her lip to subside the excitement in her body. "Come to think of it, I don't know why there aren't _more_ girls chasing after him."

"Oh, I can think of a few reasons." Kat smiled teasingly at Kara before continuing. "Still, Max, I'm not sure the CAG would go for it."

"Oh, gods." Max groaned. "I know that he's a pretty-boy control-freak with good hygiene and gloriously chiseled arms, but……..that doesn't mean he's gay, does it?"

Kat giggled and rested her forehead in her hand. "Nope. I don't think he's gay."

"Then what? It's not because I'm a junior officer, is it?"

"_Definitely_ doesn't have a problem with that." Kat muttered softly as Kara cleared her throat in an unspoken order not to continue. "I just don't think he'd be interested. You're not exactly his type."

"He just doesn't know that he's interested yet." Max replied arrogantly. "And I'm _everybody's_ type. Now all I have to do is seduce him."

Kat laughed in disbelief and bewilderment at Max's obliviousness. "Are you serious?"

"Not only am I serious," Max said coyly, putting her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hand. "I was hoping Starbuck could help me snag him."

Kara's eyes shot up. "Me?"

"Her?" Kat asked incredulously, looking at Starbuck like it must be some kind of joke that she'd not yet been let in on.

"Well, yeah." Max told Kara. "I mean, I thought you could put in a good word. You seem to have his ear more than anyone else on the ship. And I know you guys have your arguments, but………you _are_ friends, right?"

"No." Starbuck said simply.

Max's whole face froze at Kara's bluntness. "Excuse me?"

"We're not friends." Kara replied. "A long time ago, we used to be friends. But we're not anymore. After everything that's happened, we can't be friends."

Max's face melted into a mask of sympathy that actually hid relieved excitement and the tone of her voice was that of mock-compassion. "I had no idea. It's just awful when a relationship changes like that."

"Tragic." Kara said.

"Heartbreaking." Kat added, looking at Starbuck amusedly.

"But," Max continued patronizingly. "You really don't seem too upset by that turn of events."

Kara nodded soberly. "I'm pretty okay with it."

* * *

"Evening, Sir." Kara said as she jogged up beside Commander Adama and fell in stride as he walked down the hall. 

"Evening, Starbuck." He replied. "What do you hear?"

"The call of paperwork." She laughed as she held up the file in her hand. "I'm heading to a meeting with the CAG right now."

"This late?"

"It's the only time we could meet." She looked down at the file as they continued to walk. "So, you want these reports first thing in the morning?"

"Well that depends." He said. "When was the last time you had a 'meeting' with Captain Adama?"

She stopped dead in her tracks and her mind froze in fear. His eyes flashed in amusement for a split second before going back to serious as he stopped along with her.

She took a deep breath. "Um, I, um, I think…………..I think the last 'meeting' was the one on _Cloud Nine_ two days ago." She stuttered.

"It's been that long?" He smiled teasingly as she sheepishly looked to the floor. "In that case, you two must have a lot to go over. I won't need those reports until tomorrow afternoon."

He walked away down the hall and she stood in the middle of it, staring after him with her mouth hanging wide open.

* * *

Kara was resting on her stomach in the middle of the floor in the CAG's office. They had learned to put down a blanket after they had heard several comments about the wrinkles on their clothes from where they had laid on top of them. 

She felt his hand move up her bare back. "Your back is the most perfect thing I've ever seen."

She turned over to face him. "You don't like my front?" She pouted.

"Your front has become one of the main reasons for my continued existence, but your back definitely has its good qualities too." He grinned down at her.

"Hmmm." She reached up and ran her hand over his jaw, but stopped as she saw his eyes narrow at her in inquisition. "What?"

"You're still thinking about it, aren't you?" He chuckled.

She let out a loud sigh. "It was _weird_, Lee."

"What exactly did he say?"

"Nothing obvious." She confirmed. "But he had some _serious_ innuendo going on and………"

"What?" He asked tracing her collarbone.

"Maybe it was just an eye twitch, but I swear he _winked _at me."

"We've been having dinner with him twice a week for the last three weeks; did you think he didn't know?"

"I know, I know." She said covering her eyes. "It just freaked me out."

"Well if _that_ freaked you out." He said as he laid on his back. "You wouldn't have liked being on _Colonial One_ this afternoon."

She sat up on her elbows. "The _President _knows?"

"You didn't think I was powerful enough to get us that night on _Cloud Nine_ all by myself, did you?" He laughed.

Kara groaned and laid back down. "I'm gonna need a little time to process that." She turned after a moment and pressed herself against his side. "However, I'm willing to deal with the awkward ramifications of her awareness of our situation since it meant that I got to spend a whole night with you in a real bed."

"You dissing our office-floor heaven, Starbuck?" He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Never." She replied as she traced her finger around in a pattern on his chest. On her thumb was Zak's ring. '_Lee would want me to keep it on as much as Zak did.'_

They laid there in silence for a few minutes until he spoke. "I was meaning to ask you, did something happen earlier this evening?"

She turned her face up to him. "What do you mean?"

"I saw Kat about an hour before you got here and she told me to 'watch out' for Max. You know anything about what she meant?" He asked as he swept his hand over her hair.

"Uh-huh." She laid her head back down. "Max told Kat and I that she was gonna make a play for you."

His body tensed. "Wait a second, Max told _you_ that?"

"Not only that." She ran her foot up against his leg. "She asked me to help her get you. You know, because you and I are friends."

He laughed heartily. "That is frakking hilarious."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Maybe, um, maybe we should _tell_ people about us." She said hesitantly.

"Isn't it common knowledge already?"

"Kind of, but people don't talk about it." She replied.

"I have absolutely no problem with people not talking about it." He smirked.

"It puts us in strange situations, though." She said. "People don't know if it's safe to say anything. They don't know if it's fact or just assumptions."

"Everybody _knows_, Kara." He told her again.

She grew slightly irritated. "Obviously based on that little conversation I had this evening, everybody _doesn't _know."

"Alright, let me rephrase that. Everybody who isn't a self-absorbed, over-sexed airhead knows." He chuckled. "Everybody else is aware. We allhave an unspoken agreement." He smiled deviously. "Why do you think no one ever bothers us when we're in here? Helo knows; that take care of the air group. Dee knows; that takes care of combat. And Tyrol and Cally know; that takes care of maintenance and deck crew. They'll make sure we're covered. No one's gonna come to the door."

"We should still say something. Make it official." She clutched her arm around him.

He wrapped his arm around her. "Like how?" He asked before adopting a teasing tone. "I could get on the P.A. and tell everyone how Lt. Thrace is ticklish in the bend of her knees and how she made me see the gods three times in one hour last week."

"That'd work. And I'd pay very good money to hear that." She laughed as she kissed his chin. "But it doesn't have to be anything quite that grandiose."

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it." He affirmed.

"You could just grab me and kiss me hard at the beginning of the Pilot's briefing tomorrow." She smiled.

He sat up partway and looked at her in bewildered awe. "How did you know that?"

"How did I know what?" She asked concerned as she pulled back slightly.

"How did you know that was my most frequent fantasy?"

She laughed and settled back in. "Great minds think alike, I guess." She paused and then looked back to him with a smile. "After that, we could start sleeping in the same bunk."

"Or get our own room." He corrected.

"No, not yet. Not for a while." She stated firmly and then spoke to soothe him as she saw his rejected look. "If we had our own room _now_, we'd never get any sleep. We need to wait until we've gotten enough of this out of our system that we can be in a room alone without being all over each other."

"I don't think we'll _ever _get to that point." He laughed. "So I guess Max will be pretty devastated that I'm off the market."

"Don't flatter yourself, Apollo. She'll pout for half an hour and then move on to the next guy."

"What did you tell her when she asked for your help?"

"I told her that I couldn't help her, because we weren't friends." She replied. "I told her that a long time ago, we used to be friends. But we aren't anymore."

"So you lied to her?"

"No. I didn't _lie,_ Captain." She kissed him gently. "There are just many ways someone could take that statement."

-THE END

Okay. So yeah, I _blatantly_ stole the title from the _Veronica Mars_ track. What of it?


	5. Epilogue

_In deference to _**midnightair, SG1SamFan, Lattelady **and **Lolatheshowgirl**, _I decided to write an epilogue. Hope you enjoy.-roofietoof_

* * *

Stupid. Of all the stupid frakking things for her to have done, of all the stupid frakking things that she _had_ done, _this_ had to rank near the top. 

She was going to be late. Today of all days, she was going to be late for the pilot's briefing.

They had left his office at the same time late last night and walked side by side down the corridors until they reached the pilot's bunkroom.

Normally they would have left the office and entered the quarters at different times so as not to arouse suspicion. Shewas about to do just that when he had taken her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.

He shook his head. "What the hell for?" He had smiled. "It's gonna be an undeniable fact by 07:02 tomorrow."

They had entered the room quietly, noticing that any bunks that weren't empty had their curtains tightly shut. They undressed at their respective lockers and she had leaned over her bed to pull back the covers. When she stood back up, she felt him pressed behind her, his breath against her neck as he moved her hair off to one side. He had kissed her shoulder and let his tongue flicker over the rapidly-heating skin.

She had turned around and smiled at him, placing a finger on his lips and one up to hers in a silent gesture. He saw her mouth "Tomorrow."

He nodded, reluctantly pulled away, and went to his own bunk. She had fallen asleep listening to the lullaby of his breathing, happy and content that this was the last night that she would have to listen to it from across the room.

She had heard him and several other pilots awaken sometime later, but a quick glance at her bedside clock verifying that it was only 05:30 was met with relief when she realized she could sleep for another hour before she had to get up for the day.

Sleep was a good thing.

"I hate sleep." She now muttered to herself as she walked quickly down the hallway. She glanced at her watch. "07:12" She confirmed in self-disgust. Lee was a creature of habit, and he would be well into the briefing by now. She had missed her opportunity and they would just have to wait for another one to come along. Kissing at the _beginning_ of the briefing was one thing, but she knew that neither one of them was the type to stop it in-progress just to do a quick tongue dance.

Now she was just hoping that Lee wouldn't kill her for her tardiness and the disruption of their plan. He could be quite a lot to handle when she had done something to upset him. Maybe he would take her to his office after the briefing for a good dressing-down. She giggled slightly.

"Morning, Starbuck." Commander Adama said to her from the other side of the hallway as he walked in the opposite direction. "What do you hear?"

She hadn't noticed him before, but she stopped suddenly as she heard his voice. He stopped too and they stood face to face.

"Morning, Sir." She started hesitantly as she drew in a deep breath. "I need to speak with you."

"Of course." The Commander said and gave her his full attention. "What's on your mind?"

"Well," She sighed. "Something is going to be circulating around the ship by the end of the day, and while I'm almost positive that you know about it, you haven't heard it from _me_, therefore it doesn't count."

A smile flashed on his face for a split second before going back to serious. "I think I already know what you're going to say, but go ahead."

"Okay. Here goes." She laughed nervously. "I've been sleeping with your son. Well, not _just _sleeping. Oh gods, I can't believe I just said that to you. I just meant that it goes _way beyond_ sleeping. Oh gods, I just made it worse. I'm just saying that it's not just ordinary sex, it goes _much deeper_. Oh HOLY FRAK, why can't I stop TALKING?" She cradled her forehead in her palm. "I'm rambling, aren't I?"

"Just a little bit."

"All I want to say is that I love your son. It's not just……… it's not just any other thing. I don't know how it could possibly ever be with someone that had your last name. I love Lee, just like I loved Zak. Except more, I think. Utterly, completely, madly and until I die, until after I'm dead, because I'm sure that there's some kind of lay-away plan or after-party or………I'm frakking rambling again!"

The Commander then did something that she thought she would never see. He laughed. Heartily. "Yes, but it looks good on you."

"I want to be with him, and I wanted you to know about it." She whispered, finally allowing herself to breathe.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Lee told me as much when I saw him thirty minutes ago."

"I'm sorry?" She said, shaking her head like she just couldn't believe it. "_Lee_ talked to you about this?"

"Yes. He said pretty much the same thing, in pretty much the same bumbling, incoherent, but wholly wonderful way that you did." He paused as he saw her rubbing her eyes. "I'm surprised that Lee didn't mention to you that he was gonna talk to me about it. I wonder why he didn't."

"Probably because he knew that I wanted to talk to you too, and saw an opportunity to pay me back for all of the times _I've_ ever put _him_ in an awkward situation for a good laugh." She looked to the floor sheepishly, and when she looked back up, she was chewing her bottom lip. "You're not mad?"

"No."

"You're not concerned about us breaking the regs, or about how other people will view it?"

"Lt. Thrace, the fact that you and Captain Adama are not living in the brig _right now_ after the many, many, and I do mean _many_ things that the two of you have done worthy of me putting you there should act as proof of how little the regs concern me."

She looked away, tears brimming in her eyes. "Do you have any _personal_ reservations?"

He took off his glasses. "I'll admit it'll be weird for a while. But you know it always tore at my heart a little that I never got to see Zak with the woman he loved. Seeing Lee with the woman _he _loves should ease the sting. And I'd always wanted to see what you looked like, happy and in love with my son. I realize now it doesn't matter _which_ son."

"Sir—."

"It'll be weird for awhile, however it'll be less weird very soon. And not weird at all in about two years."

"Two years?" Her face grew puzzled. "Why two years?"

"Well," He stated, putting his glasses back on. "Babies don't really start to get cute until they're about three months old. Throw in nine months for pregnancy, and maybe a year for the two of you to stop acting like children and realize that you want to _have _children instead. I figure I'll be a very happy man in about two years." He started to walk away and then turned back momentarily. "Oh, and I'd prefer that my grandchild not be illegitimate, so you might wanna get working on that too."

For the second time in less than twelve hours, William Adama left her standing in the middle of the hallway, staring after him with her mouth hanging open.

A young ensign whose name she didn't know stopped to check on her when he saw the Almighty Starbuck frozen where she stood. "Lieutenant? Lieutenant, are you okay?"

She shuddered when he put his hand on her shoulder. "Um, um, I, um." She looked away, then back in the Commander's direction, then to the ensign. "Um……….."

* * *

She walked into the briefing room and was relieved when she saw that his head was down, looking at the list on his podium as he went through the run-down. She would just slip unnoticed into the vacant seat on the end of the row next to Helo. 

"Lt. Thrace." Lee said looking up at her before she could sit down. "Glad you could find time in your day to join us."

"I'm sorry, Captain Adama. I overslept." She smiled widely. "But I see you started without me."

"You snooze, you lose, Starbuck." He answered simply.

"Well, I was exhausted. And that's partly your fault." Kara saw Kat nearly spit out the coffee that she had just sipped. "You know, because of all the extra shifts you've been assigning."

"We couldn't wait for you any longer." He tapped his pen against the podium.

"You always _used _to wait for me to come." She said as Racetrack coughed deliberately and Helo nearly doubled over in his chair with laughter. "Oh well, as long as you don't _finish_ without me." She sat down in her chair and grinned deviously at him as he looked down to his papers, biting his lip in an attempt to seem put-out instead of amused and turned-on.

She sat in her chair with her feet propped up on the one in front of her as Lee went through his briefing with the same single-mindedness that he did everything else. But every time he looked up, Kara thought it was her duty to torture him. Unzipping her flight suit down to nearly her navel and then zipping it back up, licking her lips, mouthing words that he couldn't quite make out but that he knew were definitely _not _in a grammar school dictionary, and nodding her head as she gave him only slightly obscene hand gestures.

"Lt. Thrace?" He stated firmly, cutting through her attempts at seduction. "Does that nod and that gesture of the hand mean that you wouldn't mind taking over the night-watch for the next few days?" He smiled at her widely, raising his eyebrows.

_Oh, he is so gonna get it._ "No, I wouldn't mind at all, Sir." She smirked. "Since I most _definitely_ won't be _doing_ anything else for the next three nights." She finished harshly.

He bit back a laugh as he heard Frosty, Joker and Stingray let out quiet whistles.

"Okay guys, that's it." Lee said as he closed his folder.

As the meeting broke up, she stayed in her chair. Helo turned to her, shaking his head. "Cute." He laughed.

"I am, aren't I?" She laughed back.

"Can we expect this double-entendre freakshow to continue? If so, I need to find a hammer so I can beat it against my head in an attempt to lose all visual and auditory senses."

She smiled sweetly. "You can keep the tools in the tool belt, Karl. We just wanted to give the people something to talk about. After today, we'll be perfect little soldiers."

"Good to know." He patted her knee, got up and walked out.

She sat there asLee got his papers together. He looked up at her and grinned lustfully. She stood and started to walk over to him, but was stopped by Hotdog stepping in front of her. "Um, Starbuck, did you make this schedule?"

Lee saw that her journey over to him had been interrupted and moved to pull her out of the conversationbut he was also quickly stopped by someone asking him a question.

"CAG, why do I have to fly with Frosty?" Max whined as the pilot in question stood beside her.

**Simultaneous conversations began**:

"Yeah, Hotdog, I made it. Why?" Starbuck grumbled.

"You don't ever schedule time before CAP for pre-flight checklists." Hotdog pointed out.

"Nobody does, Costanza."

"Well." Hotdog sighed. "It's just something that we're supposed to do and yet it's never on the schedule."

Racetrack had been standing nearby and interjected. "It's not something you schedule, Hotdog. You're just supposed to do it."

"But it's not on the schedule."

"What do you want me to do?" Kara asked, irritated. "Schedule fifteen minutes before CAP for you to do your damn job?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You're flying with Frosty because I scheduled it that way." Lee answered abruptly. "I don't really need to give you a reason other than that."

"But Sir, I already told you, we don't work well together." Max replied. "He doesn't show me any respect."

"In order to show someone respect, you actually have to respect them." Frosty sneered.

"Well," She shot back. "I've seen some of the nuggets call you 'Sir' and come to attention when they see you, then five minutes later talk about what a loser you are, so obviously that isn't always true."

"Max," Lee began, trying to placate her. "The rotation can't just be changed whenever someone doesn't like who they're paired with. But if you can give me a concise, compelling argument as to why you can't abide by it, I'll consider changing the lineup."

"Well," She thought for a moment. "He's stupid and I frakking hate him."

Lee sighed and rubbed his temple. "Well put." He said sarcastically.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I just think that if we had some structure in our lives that it would be better for everybody." Hotdog said.

"Gods." Racetrack shook her head. "You really are a whiny little bitch aren't you? You want a superior officer to hold your hand while you're in the head, too?"

"Hey, I'm just trying to say that things are kinda starting to go back to normal now and we can't use the whole 'unusual circumstances' thing anymore."

"Nobody's ever complained before." Starbuck snapped. "And I don't just mean lately, I mean EVER."

"You're just supposed to do it, Costanza." Racetrack interrupted.

"But it's not on the schedule, if it was really something that I was always supposed to do, it would be on the schedule. And I'm looking at the schedule and it's _not_ on the schedule." Hotdog turned back to Kara. "Lieutenant, do you know of any reason that it can't be on the schedule?"

"No." Kara rubbed her eyes. "But I do know that if you say the _word _'schedule' one more time, I'm gonna beat you into the frakking ground."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Yeah, Max, that _was_ well put." Frosty nodded. "Do they make dictionaries that you can tape on a ceiling, because I've gotta think that would be the only way you could look at one long enough to know those eloquent words."

"Okay, you know what—." She hissed back.

"CAG, I've got an idea. Why don't you put her with Joker? Oh yeah, that's right, she's already _ridden_ him………….." Frosty paused as he saw Max put her hands on her hips in indignation. "I'm sorry, I meant to say ridden _with_ him……….. and he decided he didn't _lik_e it." He gave her a fake smile.

"I've thought of another reason I can't fly with you, Frosty." Max shrugged. "You can't maneuver a control stick to save your life." She looked him up and down. "Is that a common problem for you _outside_ the cockpit as well?"

_**Everything started to run together.**_

"Starbuck, I'm just trying to say……………….."

"You do it because I'm telling you to do it; you do it because you're supposed to do it. It doesn't need to be frakking scheduled!"

"CAG, you see the way that he speaks to me?"

"The way that _I _speak to _you_? What about the way you speak to me? What's left of the world doesn't revolve around you, Max."

"I don't have time for the two of you. My day is crammed full enough as it is without taking time out to listen to your childish, petulant gripes!"

"Starbuck, why can't………….…?"

"CAG, you've gotta………………"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhh." Kara screamed.

"ENOUGH!" Lee yelled at the same time.

They both took in a deep breath and looked at each other sympathetically.

Kara raised her arms up and then instantaneously let them fall back down in exasperation. Shelaughed slightly. "NOW would be good."

Without hesitation Lee sidestepped Frosty and Max, walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. Then he kissed her, his hands moving up and down her back and through her hair.

She gave back as good as she got, cradling his head in her hands, her lips moving in a perfect dance with his. This lasted awhile.

The remaining people left in the room stood and watched. Shocked, but at the same time, _not _shocked at what had unfolded before them. They all looked to each other for a moment, wondering if they should stay or quietly make their way to the hatch.

"Huh." Max snorted, turning back to look at Apollo and Starbuck. "I guess she was right about the 'not friends' thing. Even I don't kiss my friends like that and I'm a total slut."

Hotdog looked to the others. "Can I have Starbuck's bunk when she moves out of it? It's killing me to sleep under Joker."

Kara and Lee pulled apart slowly, grinning at each other as he pushed back a strand of her hair that had fallen loose.

"Okay." He said simply, though still a little out of breath. "I'll see you later, sweetheart."

She patted him on the shoulder. "Have a good day, dear."

She watched as he exited the room.She thenalternated between glancing at the floor and back to the hatch that he had just walked out of. She reached up to touch her lips and felt not only him still lingering there but a huge smile as well. She then noticed that there were other people left in the room, staring at her with amused looks on their faces.

She turned to all of them. "What?" She hissed. "I can still beat the crap out of all of _you_."

* * *

"You've gotta take Thumper off flight for a while." Kara told Lee a month later as they sat in the mess hall by themselves, looking over the flight logs and schedules that were spread before them. 

"You wanna tell me why I have to remove a perfectly fit pilot from the rotation?" He said looking over a piece of paper.

"Well," She started hesitantly. "He's a little _too_ fit, especially with the ladies." She watched as Lee looked up, puzzled. "He went to the Rising Star two weeks ago and he………_came back with something._" She bit back a laugh as realization hit Lee and his eyes got wide. "Cottle doesn't want him flying while he's on the medication."

"Yeah." Lee rubbed his temple. "We'll have to move some things around, ask people to pull extra shifts."

"Maybe we should tell Thumper to ask them, and instruct him to give them a detailed explanation as to why he's asking. That would act as a deterrent for him let it happen again." She laughed.

"Hmph. Can't really blame him though, have you _seen _some of the girls on the Rising Star?" He whistled.

"Excuse me?" She said in shock and looked around the empty room in bafflement. "Am I in here? Because it _feels_ like I'm in here."

He chuckled. "That came out the wrong way."

She raised her eyebrows. "Then I suggest you make it come out the _right_ way, and I mean _damn_ quick."

He leaned forward in his chair and took her hand in his. "I just meant that it's easy for us to forget how lonely people can get, ya know? Because we haven't felt that way in a while."

She smiled. "That was actually a pretty good revision of your previous remark, Captain. I might just let that one go." She handed him a pen. "You have to sign his removal papers."

He smiled and moved the paper over in front of him, signing his name.

"Carlson wants off night-watch, she wants to go to early." Kara said as he handed the pen back to her.

"Which one's Carlson?" Lee asked off-handedly.

"Blond girl, came onboard with the last batch of recruits." Kara answered.

"So, she's only been here for five weeks and she wants to get on the most coveted watch?" Lee watched as she nodded in confirmation. "Kara, sometimes _I'm _not even on the early-watch."

Kara flipped the top page over to look at the next one. "Which is why I told her that it wasn't gonna happen, but I had to run it by you first. She says if she doesn't get it she's gonna go back to the Adriatic."

"Let her." He sighed. "I'm so sick of this crap. Sometimes it feels like the people who _haven't_ been on Galactica since day one are never gonna grasp what miracles bad food, short showers and stolen moments in the CAG's office really are."

Her face took on a dark pink hue and she dropped her head in embarrassment.

He looked at her for a long time as she wrote something across a page. "Do you wanna get married?"

She finished putting her thought down on paper and then looked up. "Sure." She said simply.

"To me?"

"Well, I've already promised Hotdog I'd marry him. But we haven't set a date yet, so I guess I could break it off." She teased.

"Do you wanna do it soon?"

"Well," She shrugged. "It all depends on how fast you can get my dowry together."

"Your dowry?" He laughed. "I thought dowries were what _women_ gave _men_ so that they would marry them."

"I changed the rules." She winked. "And if you wanna get married, I suggest you get used to me doing that."

"Okay." He pondered it for awhile. "All I've got are three cigars that Representative Bagget gave me."

"That'll work." She said. "Oh, by the way, you only have two now." She saw him shake his head in astonishment and then return to his report. "Don't keep stuff like that where you know I can get to it." She warned him as she looked back to hers.

"We _could _do it soon. Unless of course you wanted a real wedding." He raised his head and locked gazes with her.

"You mean a _real _wedding? Where I'd stand below a canopy of flowers in my virginal white gown and we'd recite love sonnets to each other while harp music played?" Her eyes narrowed and she scrunched up her nose as she shook her head in rejection of the idea.

"Yeah." He laughed in amused understanding. "I figured that wouldn't really be your style." He looked back down and circled something on the rotation that looked out of place, showing it to her. "Make sure you fix that."

"I will." She took the paper from him.

"The President is sending around a priest to all of the ships for grief counseling a couple times a week, he'll be here at 09:00." He scribbled something down on the next paper he saw. "You busy tomorrow?" He looked back up to her.

"Very." She responded as she made the adjustment on the rotation with a red pen. "I have training in the morning and CAP in the afternoon."

"I see." He stated.

"But I'm free for an hour in between." She looked back to him. "We could do it then."

"Sounds good." He nodded as he put the pen down on the table. "I gotta go, I'm due in CIC." He rose from his chair and leaned over to place a kiss on her forehead before starting to walk away. "I'll see you later."

"Bye." She smiled tenderly as she went back to her paperwork.

-THE END.


End file.
